Gemstones Episode 2.5 Queer Code: the muscle magazine taped to Kelvin's bedroom wall

 

In Episode 2.5, the flashback to 1993, four-year old Kelvin has a cover of Muscle & Fitness on the wall of his room.  

You can only see it for a second before Judy turns off the light. Notice that it's positioned very low, at Kelvin's height, so he can see it better. 

I worked at Muscle & Fitness in the 1990s.  Joe Weider was extremely homophobic, worried about gay men reading our magazine, so every cover featured a man and a woman together, or a celebrity like Arnold.  The Righteous Gemstones prop department found one with just a man, or made one up: the cover on the wall does not appear in the 1990-1996 gallery.

This show rewards attention to small details of staging and set design.  Kelvin's interest in muscles here is a subtle queer code that presages his interest in the God Squad.